SAN Jose del Monte City Representative Florida Robes on Monday raised the alarm bells on deteriorating global climate conditions as she echoed what climate change advocates have been telling us – that we are already in a state of climate change emergency and should start first with strengthening our human resource capacity.

In a privilege speech, Robes proposed that the government should address the issue “immediately.”

“In the aftermath of Super Typhoon ‘Karding,’ this representation would like to spark an honest dialogue to three inconvenient—yet vital—truths that affect our nation and humanity as a whole…

The pressing and urgent need to strengthen our policies on environmental protection and [to adapt] to climate change,” Robes said.

Robes said it is lamentable and alarming to know that the Philippines, in terms of global metrics, ranked 2nd in the 2018 Climate Risk Index among countries heavily affected by extreme weather events and 11th out of 180 nations in the 2020 Environmental Performance Index (EPI).

As a result, she said, our country suffers a great economic loss (around US$3.5 billion based on World Bank estimates) yearly due to natural calamities.

“We can definitely feel the economic devastation of climate change. To illustrate, recently, Karding alone destroyed at least P160 million worth of high-value crops,” Robes said.

No less than 5,239 Bulakeños, 1,571 families, including 1,447 children and 231 senior citizens, were displaced and forced to evacuate to escape the floods, which also caused the lives of five emergency volunteers in the process.

She reiterated that climate change is no longer imminent.

“We are already in a state of climate emergency. Our President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. addressed the UN General Assembly who declared that the country is the fourth most vulnerable country to climate change. This injustice must be corrected, and those who need to do more must act now,” she said.

With this in mind, she urged her colleagues to heed these warning signs and legislate measures protecting our environment against the rabid effect of climate change.

For starters, she proposed to strengthen the role of rescuers and first responders.

“Countless storms have passed, yet the courage of rescuers of our national and local disaster risk reduction and management councils, and civil society volunteers remain unbreakable and indomitable. Yet, it is unconscionable that our laws are inadequate to protect them,” Robes reiterated in her speech.

The devastating flood caused by Super Typhoon “Karding” is unparalleled and alarming. In the province of Bulacan alone, she said significant areas in San Miguel, San Ildefonso, and San Rafael – areas not typically prone to flooding – were engulfed in deep floodwaters due to heavy rains during the onslaught of the typhoon.

Robes was particular about the state of disaster volunteers, which national and local government units (LGUs) are utilizing as our country’s primary defense against calamities and disasters.

But she said our rescuers, “who, our local risk disaster management [relies] on during disasters, are employed as mere casual employees and underpaid and receive little protection.”

She added that our country heavily relies on an emergency sector composed of casuals, job orders and volunteers in times of crises. “Ito yung panahon na hindi dapat natin talikuran ang mga tao na hindi tayo kailanman tinalikuran sa bingit ng sakuna at delubyo. Tayo po ay patuloy na maninindigan para sa kanila,” Robes vowed.

She also gave honor to the five emergency responders who died while saving residents who were stranded in the flood.

She said the “Bulacan Five” – George Agustin, Troy Justin Agustin, Marby Bartolome, Narciso Calayag Jr., and Jerson Resurreccion died “in the line of duty and service to our country.”

They were ordinary men who had shown extraordinary acts of service, she added.

She said that she has already filed two measures empowering emergency volunteers with HB (House Bill) 5584, or the Emergency Volunteer Protection Act of 2022, and HB 5650, or Magna Carta for Public Disaster Risk and Emergency Responders.